Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

The Golden Lily
(Bloodlines, #2)
By: Richelle Mead
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: June 12, 2012
Genre: Paranormal YA
Rating:


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Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.

Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.

But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.

When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.

Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

How it starts...
"Most people would find being led into an underground bunker on a stormy night scary. Not me."

My Thoughts...
In the last book Sydney signed up for an assignment that involved helping to hide and protect princess Jill from attacks. Since Jill is the queen's last relative, if those who appose the queen can kill Jill, due to Moroi law the queen will have to give up her throne since she will have no other relatives. So Sydney, Jill, Eddie and Adrian meet up and hide out in sunny Palm Springs, CA.

The Golden Lily picks up shortly after Bloodlines ends. The gang is still hiding out in Palm Springs and Dimitri and Sonya join the mix as well. I really liked the addition of more characters in the story. Sonya and Dimitri are trying to figure out what keeps a person from turning back to a strigoi once they've been "saved". Plus, we also have a potential love interest for Sydney who is pretty much the male version of herself, and Trey who we got to see a little bit of in the first book.

One key point that I have to point out that I hands down loved was the mention of Joshua Tree National Park. I literally squealed when I read it. You're probably wondering why. Well, it's because I work there! If you ever call the park and need information about what to see or where to go in the park, I'm the one answering the phones. I also talk to visitors when they come into the visitor center. So I was pretty excited to see that they not only name dropped the park but Mead did a little bit of homework concerning the two deserts that run through the park and the differences between them. That to me was probably the best part of the whole thing... oh and having a secondary character named Kristin didn't hurt either.

There is a couple of mysteries that take place in this book. Sydney realizes that the Alchemists may not be what she had grown up to believe it as. As well as the fact that Sydney may be more otherworldly than she though. You don't get 100% answers to either of these two but all I know is that Mead is setting us up for an epic adventure. Not to mention that the ending leaves you reeling for more Adrian. I mean seriously, how can you end a book on a swoon worthy note like that?!

Favorite quote...
"Nice blouse, Sage. It really brings out the khaki in your pants." -Adrian